Hi Allison,
Welcome to your personalized Grit Lab Report!
We will go week by week, reviewing everything you have told us through Poll Everywhere.
We hope this will help you reflect on what you have learned and experienced during Grit Lab.
Important note!
Sometimes, you may not have been able to respond to all polls.
If the data for one of the polls is missing, the automatic report will display NA, or ““.
Okay, let’s get started!
The first half of Grit Lab delves deep intp the passion facet of Grit.
We like to call it Choose Easy, because we think gritty people pursue what they enjoy.
Putting it graphically, gritty people tend to pursue the intersection of these four circles.
The first time we met, you told us where you were on the grit rubric.
Regarding passion you picked Stage 5: I have an interest that is not only enjoyable but also aligns with my personal values .
Regarding perseverance you picked .
As you know, grit grows, so don’t worry if you are not yet where you’d like to be in your grit journey.
Hopefully, this class will help you become grittier each day.
In week 2, we looked at your interests.
Interest is an emotion, and it is the opposite of boredom.
Your interests are the activities or subjects that spontaneously grab your attention.
Trying things out and seeing how you feel is the best way to refine your interests.
In week 3, we studied values, your beliefs about what is important.
You said your top three values were benevolence, hedonism, and self-direction.
You wrote a “This I Believe” essay, and here’s where you located it on Schwartz’s value taxonomy.
When we talked about strengths in week 4, you said your personality strength was agreeableness.
You said your top three talents were analytic, musical, and social.
We then talked about goal hierarchies.
You said you had a general intuition (but nothing specific yet) about your top-level goal.
We discussed self-concordance, or how much a goal aligns to your deeply held values and beliefs.
A goal you said you will be pursuing for the next six months is to learn to cook more .
Here is how self-concordant that goal was:
Don’t worry if your self-concordance for that particular goal is low.
It might mean that you need to reframe that goal in a way that makes it more relevant to your deep self, or change it!
Remember that self-concordance is goal specific, so other goals might be more self-concordant.
We then transitioned to the second part of Grit Lab:
Work Smart
In week 6, we looked at goal setting and planning.
You WOOPed!
For your Wish, what you wanted to accomplish, you said Talk to career services .
For your Outcome, what would happen if your wish came true, you said So I can sleep in peace .
For you Obstacle, what it is within you that stands in your way, you said Anxiety :))) .
For your Plan, you created this when-then plan to achieve your goal: When it’s Thursday night, then I’ll start researching .
Whether you changed your WOOP or stuck to that one, here’s where it landed between being a total fail, and going exactly according to plan.
And here’s how much you learned
These goals are hard, and despite our best efforts, our plans can fail.
The important thing is that you learn something along the way!
In week 7, we talked about deliberate practice.
You shared you’ve done daily practice in .
We learned that deliberate practice requires a challenging, hyperspecific goal, maximum concentration, instant feedback, and is often done alone.
In week 8, we discussed feedback.
Even though feedback can be hard to take, it is often the key to improve. So if you want to improve, seek it actively!
You said you felt Demotivated when receiving critical feedback, and Demotivated when receiving positive feedback.
We then turned to learning about stress.
In week 9, you reported feeling a moderate amount of stress in your life right now, the primary source of it being exams .
We also talked about adversity and failure.
Although related, adversity and failure are different:
Adversity happens to us, whereas failure is something for which we are generally more responsible.
However, how we interpret stress and failure matters…
Interestingly, research has found that people who believe that stress can facilitate learning and growth experience enhanced performance, well-being, and health.
And failure—not achieving a particular goal—can be interpreted as “I’m learning!” and lead you to look for the lesson in that experience.
We closed the Work Smart section of the class by talking about habits.
Throughout the semester, you practice habit building using your Build-A-Habit Guide book.
You describe the habit you chose as Health .
Whether you were successful in habit building or not, this is how much you learned.
Finally, what good is grit if we do not dream for others?
So, we transitioned to Paying it Forward.
In week 10, we looked at mentors: role models that take an active role in your growth.
Hopefully, your mentor was authoritative, being both supportive and demanding.
Here’s how you described them:
You also wrote a gratitude letter to Parent .
In one word, you said it made you feel Emotional .
One way of paying it forward is having a prosocial, beyond-the-self purpose. Here’s how you responded to items assessing that.
… and so quickly we arrived at the end of the semester.
Here’s how your mood varied over these weeks.
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Do you notice any patterns? Is there anything that correlates with your mood?
Here you can scroll through all the quotes you wrote to summarize each class.
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| Grit changes per person per situation, a low grit trait person has the potential to be a high grit trait person in a specific situation |
| Interest and boredom are both emotions. |
| Making goals and declaring them publicly can help you actually achieve that goal |
| The concept of near misses pushing further and harder than people who just barely made the cut off |
| We aren't givers, matchers, and takers alone. We are a mix of all three and different situations bring out different parts of our personalities. |
In the final class, we looked back to everything we’ve learned together and to how our passion and perseverance evolved during this class.
Here are the comments from your Grit Lab Teammates:
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| Kyulee Kim |
| Allison has consistently been a pillar of support within our team, and I genuinely appreciate her for it. Her availability and willingness to listen make her a person I can talk to whenever I need. What stands out most about Allison is her deep respect for others. She approaches team discussions with an open mind, valuing diverse perspectives and ensuring that everyone's voice is heard. This level of attentiveness not only contributed to effective communication but also created a positive and inclusive team atmosphere.
In observing Allison's Discovery project presentation, her dedication to her artistic endeavors was truly outstanding. I could see her consistency in drawing, a craft that demands both time and patience. The fact that she worked on multiple pieces of art, each taking a considerable amount of time to complete, shows her commitment to her passion. Having had the opportunity to view some of her works, I can attest to their high quality. What I find particularly intriguing is her exploration of new color palettes and techniques, indicating a genuine curiosity and creativity in her artistic pursuits.
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| Neel Jain |
| Allison Xiao brings a sense of relatability, kindness, and humility to our group in Grit Lab 101 that I really appreciated. She'd always insert little jokes about otherwise difficult and stressful topics which always lightened the mood. This ties into her very humble nature - Allison displays humility in all of her actions, never trying to spotlight herself as the center of attention. Instead, I've noticed that Allison is an active and engaged listener, never interrupting others but instead synthesizing information to acknowledge other's ideas and ask thoughtful questions. Allison is incredibly supportive and showed up for my soccer tournament initiative and consistently offered a sounding board and reinforcement when I had struggles. Despite not bragging about herself much, Allison is a very gritty person studying neuroscience and conducting brain research on rats - I'm eager to see where her intellectual thoughtfulness takes her. She is also an exceptionally talented artist and displays unbelievable creativity with some of her drawings she's produced for her discovery project.
I loved learning about your journeys through creating your various pieces of art. Your slides and art were beautiful and I really appreciated how your visual presentation allowed me to take in the imagery and vividness of the art. I learned just how many components there can be to creating art that I would've never thought of, such as color palette, style, and value. Your presentation opened up my eyes to a whole new artistic and creative arena that I've never quite explored before personally. I also really appreciated how you tied further learnings into your project like stepping outside of your comfort zone and practicing deliberate practice on smaller things which tied everything together. I really look up to how you took this time out of your discovery project to re-establish your artistic side, and it's inspiring me to keep looking into how I can exercise my creativity! |
| Jayden Khuu |
| Throughout the semester, Allison consistently demonstrated her commitment to the team by showing up each week with a readiness to share and be authentically herself. Her openness in discussing various aspects of her life, from her artistic endeavors to family stories and weekend adventures, has been a source of delight and anticipation for her teammates. Allison's unique perspective and engaging storytelling make each meeting enjoyable and refreshing. Her presence and authenticity are deeply appreciated, and there is a sincere hope that she maintains her individuality and stays in touch moving forward.
Allison's presentation of her artwork during the discovery project was a proud moment for her team. While she had frequently spoken about her art, the presentation provided a deeper understanding of how she uses colors and brightness to create a distinct atmosphere in her work. Witnessing the evolution of her art, progressing through various drafts and challenges, was not only impressive but also inspiring. It sparked a desire in her teammates to explore their own artistic sides. Allison's passion for art is evident, and her ability to emulate various artistic styles while developing her own is remarkable. Her continuous improvement and dedication to her craft are commendable, and her team feels a profound sense of pride in her achievements and growth as an artist. |
We hope you have emerged from Grit Lab a little grittier than you started.
Do you want to see how your grit rubric changed?
Drumroll please…
Don’t worry if the rubric doesn’t yet reflect growth. It is only a coarse measure that cannot replace your own self-reflection.
In any case, grit is not built in a day…
…remember that progress is never smooth…
…so stay passionate and persevering in the lifelong quest of choosing easy, working smart, and paying it forward.
With grit and gratitude,
Angela and the Grit Lab team.